Post by admin

So apparently a few people agree with us . . .

As we stated a while back, the London Thames Cable Car (Emirates AirLine) is a fine enough addition to the London skyline, but serves little to no public transit purpose as the system isn’t fully fare integrated into the overall London transport network.

This renders the system little more than a novelty for tourists – which is fine. Except that given the price point and the number of tourists London experiences per year this system is sure to make money. Which, in turn, raises the question why London commuters should have to pay to use the system at all – especially given the fact that local public dollars were used to finance it.

These issues are at the core of a recent motion passed by the London Assembly. The motion, agreed to by a majority of Assembly Members, essentially asks the Mayor of London to study and reconsider fully integrating the system into London’s transport network.

That would be a huge win both for the cable transit industry and Londoners in general.

Here’s the content of the entire motion:

“The Assembly welcomes the cable car river crossing, but regrets that some £25 million worth of public money has been spent on it being built when the Mayor had promised that it would be fully funded from the private sector.

This Assembly regrets that travel on the cable car will not be covered by travel cards, the Freedom Pass or the Oyster cap. It considers that the Mayor has missed an opportunity to integrate fully the cable car into the public transport ticketing system.

The Assembly requests the Mayor under section 60(1) of the Greater London Authority Act to:

• Reconsider the exclusion of cable car journeys from the normal ticketing arrangements when he makes his 2013 fares decision;

• Report to the Assembly, well in advance of his 2013 fares decision, on the cost of including cable car journeys in travel cards, the Freedom Pass and Oyster cap;

• Consult with boroughs on how cable car travel could be included in the Freedom Pass.”

Obviously we’ll be paying close attention to this one.